You're right Nancy, I should have included the fridge in my exception list. My main concern used to be the clothes dryer until I heard about all kinds of problems like the one you describe in your dishwasher. So I have a zero-tolerance policy with electric and gas appliances, with the exception of the fridge.

And with all of the fancy electronic features that are being added all of the time, Rob - it will probably get worse. We just bought a washer a few months ago and we no longer set the water level - the washer senses it. I hate to think what will happen if the water level sensor circuitry goes out...

I see what you are saying Ann and it is no doubt excellent practice - but refrigerators run all of the time...and while I don't typically leave the house if appliances are running - I can't say that about the dishwasher which becomes invisible to me after the main wash cycle has completed...until a plastic spoon fell through the top basket and was lodged against the heating element when the heated dry cycle came on - between the burning smell and the smoke coming out of it - that could have ended quite badly. It really is hard to predict all of the scenarios that can happen in a household - especially with two teenagers! LOL I agree - only running appliances while you are home is safest...

Good point, Nancy. In these Made by Monkey blogs, we regularly hear about how the families had washers and dryers for 20 or 30 years with no problem. Then they purchased a new one . . . Seems that the mechanical aspects of the appliances work just fine. But watch out for the electronics.

Newer models and control panels...what does that say about this generation of engineering? You would think it would be rock solid and not subject to these issues because of the wealth of experience behind them. Control panels aren't rocket science - I find this A.puzzling and B.concerned about leaving the house if a household appliance is running...

Like naperlou, I've also had good experiences with Kenmore machines and I think their good reputation is well-deserved. Of course, I bought all of mine over 10 years ago, so I'm not sure how well that reputation has lasted. This Made by Monkeys makes me think that perhaps we need a new acronym: DFF (Design-For-Failure), along with all the other DFx designations. This heater layout obviously wasn't DFF-ed.

Good points, Naperlou. One of the questions would be -- how recent is this particular model? Time after time with the Made by Monkeys blog, the problems are with the newer models and their control panels.

In general the Kenmore appliances at very good. We have a washer and dryer (gas) that have lasted a long time and work fine. The issue that you ran into, and your suggestion, make sense. You would think that a company that had been putting out these products for so long would have the engineering knowledge to avoid such problems. This is especially true since it could have been a safety issue.

Industrial workplaces are governed by OSHA rules, but this isn’t to say that rules are always followed. While injuries happen on production floors for a variety of reasons, of the top 10 OSHA rules that are most often ignored in industrial settings, two directly involve machine design: lockout/tagout procedures (LO/TO) and machine guarding.

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